Preparing for life after rescission
The Senate surrendered, House expected to finalize the end of public media funding
Radio stations around the country are rolling out contingency plans now that it appears the money Congress had allocated to public media will be rescinded.
The New York Times called the Republican vote in the US Senate an ‘unusual surrender of congressional spending power.’ During the debate, which began mid-day Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, argued that the rescission request undermined the bipartisan process Congress used to determine the federal budget. Public media needed at least four GOP Senators to vote against the rescission. In the end, only Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted against the matter, which included rescinding money allocated to USAID.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, tried to work a carve out for tribal stations in his state, but the president of Native Public Media told the Times that they appealed to him privately, asking him to oppose rescission because the deal he made with the White House wasn’t going to work.
The bill is not yet final because the Senate amended the bill to preserve specific foreign aid allotments and international AIDS relief. The US House must accept the changes before the bill becomes law.
Headlines on Current, a news site focused on public media, suggest the cuts are already having an impact, with layoffs announced at KQED; the leader of New York Public Radio stepping down as CEO; and more.
On Thursday, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) outlined what it will be pursuing in the coming days. NFCB has been fighting to preserve collective access to the public radio satellite system, and plans to respond to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s call for proposals for an “Entity to Manage and Govern Public Radio Content Distribution.” NFCB is also seeking more information on the future of SoundExchange, what it will mean for public radio stations, and how they pay for the music they play.
They will be holding a virtual town hall for members next week. Here is more information on membership in NFCB.
Finally, we know that there is survival wisdom among our readers. If you have story ideas, or news to share, about your station’s plans for the coming months, we would be pleased to publish them here. Please email your story idea to Betty at betty@c-map.org.
Communications Act of 1934, Sect. 326.
Nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.